Using instant messaging for emergency communications may also present some limitations:

Many people who use instant messaging may consider their conversations as private and fleeting as a phone call.

The study showed that "workers who used instant messaging on the job reported less interruption than colleagues who did not".

Some people use e-mail or Instant messaging, but the preferred method is still the phone.

Instead of e-mail, he wants staff to use instant messaging and other chat-like communications media.

Heh... been using instant messaging of some sort or another in the office since 1993.

Within an hour, users meet up to 15 people using live video and instant messaging.

The finding fits with earlier US research which found that people using instant messaging don't lose their ability to spell.

"There is no cultural barriers because most computer users already use electronic messaging extensively."

And once teenagers start using instant messaging, the parents can't get on the machines at all.